“Fine,” I said with a nod.
‘Well?’ I asked Rage. ‘What do you think?’
‘Your call. I’d leave him here to rot. He’s the worst kind of coward,’ Rage offered with a scowl.
Thinking of how Julian had led an attack on me, I had to agree. But I wanted to hope he’d changed, given the circumstances.
“Thank you, Julian,” I said. “I’m going to have Justice untie you, but you don’t have any magic right now. I’d suggest you don’t go anywhere, okay? Not everyone is on board with your freedom.”
He nodded, staring at the wall. “I’ll stay here, but when you figure out your plan to take back the Island—” He swallowed. “I want to help.”
Rage and I stepped outside and then filled Justice in.
“So, what’s next?” Rage asked, looking at me for an answer.
I sighed. “We need to have a leaders meeting. You, King Ozark, the alphas, all the leaders of the shifters, and the High Mage Council. We might also want to pull in the lower mages. Weallneed to sit down and figure out a plan.”
Justice winced. “That’s going to be a shitshow.”
“Yep.” I shrugged. “But the only way out from here is to work together. If we can’t get on the same page, nothing we build will stay. We need a big enough force to take on the blood mages—and no singular group has that.”
Chapter Thirteen
Sariah pulledme to the side as soon as we returned to camp. “I just need a few minutes,” she said, her gaze darting from me to Rage. “I wanted to run something by you. It might help.”
I gave Rage a tight smile. “Do you mind? I can catch up with you…”
“Not at all,” he said and then kissed me, a soft brush of his lips against mine. “I’ll go round up the leaders. We’ll meet you in Ozark’s throne room for the party planning.”
“Only you would thinkbattleis synonymous withparty,” I replied, shaking my head in mock disbelief.
His eyes widened. “Not true. I can think of at least three others—”
“Your brothers don’t count,” I said, chuckling at his dark humor. I linked my arm with my aunt’s, and the two of us stepped away toward a blue tent.
As soon as we ducked inside, I faced her. “What’s up?”
“You may’ve already thought of this,” Sariah said with a tentative smile like she was trying to be sensitive to my feelings.
At this point, I was so beyond hurt feelings. “Hit me with it anyway.”
“If you’re looking for a bit of inside information, don’t forget you can spirit walk and spy on the blood mages.”
Oh. My. Mage.
I wanted to facepalm myself for not thinking of that sooner.
“That’s brilliant!” I said with a rueful smile. “And, for the record, I hadn’t thought of it, so … thank you.”
Sariah’s smile grew, and she winked. “I’ve got your back.”
A lump formed in my throat. “You’re a lot like Grandpa Geoff, aren’t you?”
Tears glistened in her eyes, and the moment suddenly became serious. “I’d like to think so. Thank you.”
“I miss him already.” My throat constricted as I tried to rein in my emotions.
Reaching out, Sariah squeezed my hand. “Me too, but he had such a wonderful life. Those last few weeks, teaching you, I’ve never seen him so happy and focused.”
